'Deep concern' Obama ready to talk to Hamas

JERUSALEM – There is deep concern among Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization that the U.S. government has changed its attitude toward Hamas and may be ready to end the terrorist group’s isolation, a senior PA negotiator told WND.

“Three years of the siege against Hamas is ending,” said the PA negotiator, speaking from Ramallah on condition his name be withheld. “There is a new policy in the Obama administration regarding Hamas. We are concerned Hamas is starting to be a legitimate player in the equation of the Mideast and the PA.”

The negotiator met last week with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Asked by WND whether Clinton or any other U.S. official expressed direct support for opening U.S. dialogue with Hamas, the PA negotiator replied, “No. But there are troubling signs.”

He pointed to recent U.S. support for a unity government between Hamas and Fatah.

“This is the first time the U.S. has supported such a unity government. There was no objection from the U.S. about Hamas joining the PA,” he said.

He also pointed to Sen. John Kerry’s visit last month to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Massachusetts lawmaker’s reported acceptance of a letter from the Islamist group as “legitimizing Hamas.”

Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, became the most senior U.S. government official to enter Gaza since 2000. The senator announced his trip – which focused on U.N. facilities in Gaza – did not signal any change in U.S. policy toward Hamas, while it was reported he accepted a letter from the group to deliver to President Obama. A Kerry spokesman said the senator was not aware the letter, provided to him by a U.N. employee, originated with Hamas.

Mushir al-Massri, a Hamas spokesman and parliament member, told WND from Gaza: “Kerry can say there is no change, but Hamas controls Gaza. It’s very important that he came here. I hope next time the U.S. can more openly support Hamas.”

Hamas’ official charter calls for the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel. The Islamist group is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilians.

A spokesman for the State Department told WND yesterday there is no change in the U.S. policy of isolating Hamas.

Al-Massri, however, claimed Hamas is in direct communication with members of Congress.

“We are speaking to U.S. congressmen,” he claimed, “also members of the European Parliament.”

Ahmed Yousef, Hamas’ chief political adviser in Gaza, also told WND his Islamist group was in contact with members of the U.S. Congress, but he wouldn’t divulge any names.

Official U.S. policy supports sidestepping Hamas, but the group has been making major inroads toward ending its isolation.

In January, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister and Mideast envoy for the international Quartet, which includes the U.S. among its ranks, told a London newspaper Hamas should be included in the “peace process.”

Following his remarks, Yousef claimed to WND that Hamas had been in direct contact with Blair for months.

Blair’s sister-in-law, Lauren Booth, was part of a British delegation that held a solidarity meeting in Gaza yesterday with Hamas leaders, including the terrorist group’s former prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.

Some trace Hamas’ claim of newfound international dialogue to Jimmy Carter’s visit to the region in April, when the former president met with top Hamas officials.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum confirmed to WND that Hamas last year “met a delegation from the European Parliament, from France, and from Italy, and Norway, and from the EU parliament and from Carter.”

“All of these are supporting Hamas, and they have a plan to support Palestinian rights and interests,” Barhoum said, speaking from Gaza.